San Diego City Council votes against border wall

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego City Council passed a resolution Tuesday opposing President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The resolution was approved on a 5-3 vote, with council members Chris Cate, Mark Kersey and Lorie Zapf dissenting.

Zapf said the resolution only served as "political posturing."

"I'm just wondering what the point of this is," Zapf said. "Other than political posturing, I don't see anything else."

The resolution states the border wall is detrimental to San Diego's environment and tourism. It also expresses the city's intent to divest from the companies involved in the construction, financing and design of the wall. Several companies are preparing to build prototypes of the wall in San Diego.

"The border wall is a stupid idea," Councilman David Alvarez said. "The border can become efficient and safe with investments in infrastructure and technology instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars for a wall which will accomplish nothing."

Before the vote, dozens of residents lined up to speak to city officials. Three members of the public expressed their support for the wall, but most denounced it.

Port of San Diego Vice Chairman Rafael Castellanos was among those against the border barrier and said it was important to stand in solidarity with the immigrant community.

"This is not medieval China. We are not trying to keep out Mongol hordes," Castellanos said. "This is not a Matt Damon movie, this is a silly federal frolic that may go down in the Guinness World Book of Records as the worst pork-barrel project of all time."